AV Club - John Kovalic

I got a chance to talk with John Kovalic for The Onion A.V. Club. He's the artist and designer behind Munchkin, Apples to Apples and Dork Tower, so if you've played games with me, chances are you've seen his squiggles.

Geek Kon - Instant Classic Con Report

High light: A great local con that continues to grow out of its anime con roots to provide fun to geeks of all stripes.

Low light: Geek Kon's move to the week after Gen Con got a lot of "I'd love to go, but I'm broke/tired/sick" response from people who normally would have gone.

Best experience: Being on four panels and getting to talk about Firefly, Star Wars, Shadowrun and tabletop RPGs as if I were an expert on these subjects.

Worst experience: Only doing fly-bys of most of my Madison peeps.

Best bargain (had to buy it, no freebies): The only thing I bought at the show was Sentinels of the Multiverse, but Pegasus Games had it on sale.

Best Freebie: Two words: per diem. 

Most welcome surprise: Spending time with my Madison friends.

Most unwelcome surprise: Dashing off to panels instead of spending time with my Madison friends.

Best costume: As much as steampunk feels played out, there were some good examples here.

Best costume try: Doctor Who costumes are quickly becoming the Jedi robes of the decade.

Stuff bought:
Sentinels of the Multiverse

Stuff got for free:
Guest of honor badge

Best Quote:
"I can't believe I just made a room full of people laugh at a joke about lung cancer."

Geek Kon 2013 - Schedule

No rest for the wicked. This Saturday, I'll be a guest of honor at Geek Kon. I'm on a bunch of panels involving the various games I write for, including Firefly, Star Wars and Shadowrun. My schedule is after the jump.

Gen Con - Instant Classic Wrap-Up 2013

High light: The Diana Jones Awards is always a chance to meet new people, connect with Twitter buddies, and catch up with old friends. This year, I also got to meet Wil Wheaton, who won the award for his game-changing Tabletop web series. We even exchanged quips!

Low light: The fact that everyone I knew except Sarah, who is a huuuuuuuuge Wil Wheaton fan, somehow ran into him at some point during the con.

Best experience: A steak dinner discussing an upcoming project that I get more excited about the more I think about it.

Worst experience: The balance between connecting with people, professional obligations and fun time seriously clashed. 

Best bargain (had to buy it, no freebies): Pelgrane's 4-for-3 deal continues to seriously impress, especially since they throw in the PDFs for free. I wish every booth threw in the PDFs for free, since it seems like a cheap way to run a con special.

Best Freebie: The hotel room graciously provided by Brad and Sarah. This place was spuer fancy and right on the monument circle.

Most welcome surprise: A lovely lunch on Saturday featuring one of my oldest friends and one of my newest friends that I met at the con.

Most unwelcome surprise: My trusty Harley backpack broke a strap right as I set it down in the hotel room. I got a new bag at the show, but it was hard to not bring it back for a proper Viking funeral.

Best costume: The Serenity Crew that observed my Firefly game on Saturday.

Best costume try: Looking back, I guess I pseudo-cosplayed Jayne with a brown shirt, camo shorts, and a cunning hat my wife made for me.

Most amusing costume: Steampunk Ghostbusters, including a stay-puft Marshmallow man with a monocle.

Coolest booth and why: The Gale Force Nine booth had some awesome demo and tables of the Firefly board game, complete with a plastic dinosaur as the turn marker.

Strangest moment: Riding a pedicab (rickshaw) back from the Exhibit Hall because I had so many books in a broken backpack.

Favorite item available in the Exhibit Hall: The Firefly RPG book. Yeah, I'm biased, but it was awesome to see fans' eyes light up when they saw it on the table.

Stuff bought:
Dungeon Roll
Hillfolk (for my mum)
Blood on the Snow
13th Age
Eternal Lies
Esoterrorists 2nd Edition
Farewell to Fear
Shadowrun 5th Limited Edition
13th Age Limited Edition
Fate Accelerated Edition
X-Wing Miniatures (used): Core Set, TIE Advanced, Tie Interceptor, Y-Wing, Millennium Falcon
New Top Secret nerd bag
Shadowrun logo patch

Stuff got for free:
Firefly companion
Firefly GC 2013 Exclusive
Hillfolk
Night's Black Agents: Double Tap
Tremulus hardcover + dice
Machine Zeit
Fiasco app
Fiasco playsets
Firefly buttons
Catalyst tote
Shadowrun posters and Quick-starts

Stuff that was wanted that was unavailable:
Firefly Board Game
Eldritch Horror

Things to buy after Gen Con:
Firefly Board Game


Best Quote:
"Wil Wheaton told us about it. Didn't he call you?"

Gen Con - Public Schedule

Next week is Gen Con, the biggest gaming convention in the world. While I will miss the ease of rolling out of bed and heading into downtown when it was in Milwaukee, I really love how Indianapolis has embraced the show. This year is more excitign because I'll be coming home with hard copies of several different projects I worked on and some Kickstarters I backed.

I will be running Games on Demand events on Thursday and Saturday. The games I have volunteered to run are Firefly, Leverage, Camelot Trigger and 13th Age.

I will be part of the signing event on Thursday at the Pelgrane Press booth from 3 PM to 4 PM. I'm there to sign for Mafia Century inside Hillfolk, but if you want me to sign a copy of Double Tap, I will also oblige.

Friday marks some time in the Margaret Weis booth, where I'll be running 5-minute demos of Firefly and Leverage as well as signing Exclusives and discussing Echoes of War. I'll be there from Noon to 2 PM. In the evening, I'll be part of the Evil Hat table at the Ennie Awards. That event runs from 6:30-10PM

Saturday I'll be wandering the floor and trying to figure out how I'm going to get all the stuff I bought back home.

AV Club - RenQuest

My yearly trip to Bristol was to cover RenQuest, a chance to wander around the park with a purpose and interact with some of the talented performers there.